Blogs from Europe - page 10055

Antwerp on Wednesday was great (minus our group of 15 getting on the wrong train, which postponed things about an hour). Anyway, if that was the worst of it (which it was), we did great. Our site visit on Wednesday was Ecover---everyone should use their products!!!! Their mission is to produce household cleaning products that are environmentally friendly, from the raw materials through production, use, and discard/recycling. We were given a tour of their production plant (see pictures!), and even went into the lab where they test products!!! Chem peeps, they use an HPLC to determine if the 100% 'green' raw materials sent to them are indeed that (and not synthetic), which was very exciting to know what he was talking about. They gave us free samples of some of their products...you can find Ecover products ... read more

On Wednesday Kristine and I walked into town. It was a beautiful walk and the weather was really nice. We grabbed dinner at one of her favorite Italian places. Traditional food is hard to find. We walked by Bryggen a part of the town that contains a few of Bergen's oldest houses. Kristine treated me to a cider beer at an outside bar near Bryggen. While we looked out over the water and drank our beers, Kristine taught me a bit of Norwegian. I can now count to 10 and ask what time it is. I even learned a few sentences including: I want to go up the mountain, but not tonight, and I climbed a mountain. Random I know, but I have been doing a great deal of hiking. I'm planning to learn as much ... read more

Koprivstitsa Avi had mentioned to Evan that I wanted to see the places around Sofia and he suggested that I visit Koprivstitsa. He also offered that he will come at 7:00 AM to our hotel and take me to the central bus station to put me on the bus to Koprivstista. He would also arrange for a lady to escort me about the place. I too wanted to visit Koprivstitsa since I had read about it being a ‘town-museum’ and it’s Rose Festival. Evan was waiting for us when we finished our breakfast at 7:00 AM. I was surprised because according to the guidebook, Bulgarians are not very punctual, but Evan was very punctual as well as the lady escort he had provided, who actually turned out to be his own cousin. So, you cannot believe ... read more

This weekend was supposed to be Kirstyn’s weekend of crazy things she’s never done (now she’s 30 and getting old) but the Adrenaline Gods had other ideas. We did the usual trick and took off straight after work, first stop, the Tacky-a-rama of Blackpool. The main reason, the tallest and fastest roller coaster in Europe is there, and Kirst has never been on any roller coaster! (I was shocked too when I found this out). By the time we got there by 8pm, it was last ride and our plans had been destroyed. We had to settle for the run down boulevard of dodginess, and the Blackpool tower, all topped off with the worst ever fish and chips! Bloated and in pain, both physically and emotionally, we left on our way to the other side of ... read more

Greetings! I am almost at the end of week 1 in Florence. It is hard to believe that this much time has gone by. At the end of classes today, week 1 of classes is over and the students head out for a weekend trip. I hope their hiking isn't too dampened by rain. Not much new to report since yesterday, but I am posting some photos. A lot of them were taken from my apartment window. They include some of the 1000 mile car race that went through FLorence, some of a footrace the next morning, some of folks reading Dante in Italian on the steps of the Duomo (there is some interesting irony there, I think) and some random things. Enjoy!... read more